


among the stars

by simplecaelum



Series: sundrop [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Feels, Background Relationships, Best Friends, F/M, Fear, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Friends to Lovers, Green Lion, Minor Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Panic, blue lion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 20:13:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16311971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplecaelum/pseuds/simplecaelum
Summary: Allura had tried to break the news to him gently while he was eating, but when he found out Pidge and her lion hadn't been recovered he lost his appetite."How long will it take to find her?" He asked solemnly, eyes fixed on the bowl of space goo."I... I'm not sure we can, Lance," the princess admitted.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got a request on Instagram for a second part to Solitude, so here it is! It's planned to be two chapters at this moment, but who knows if someone will request more?

It wasn't the first time Lance had woke up in a healing pod, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

Every time he came to, he felt groggy, sore, and extremely hungry. Usually hungry won out, but this time sore overpowered everything else.

The battle against Zarkon had been more difficult than they had anticipated, and had ended with Voltron being forced apart and the Lions scattered across space.

Fortunately for Lance he had remained in his lion until Allura and the castle had tracked him down, along with Shiro and Hunk. The Red and Green lions,  however, we're offline and nowhere to be found - along with their paladins.

Allura had tried to break the news to him gently while he was eating, but when he found out Pidge and her lion hadn't been recovered he lost his appetite.

"How long will it take to find her?" He asked solemnly, eyes fixed on the bowl of space goo.

"I... I'm not sure we can, Lance," the princess admitted.

"Then I'm going out to look. When Shiro wakes up he can go look for Keith, but right now I'm going to look for Katie." He stood abruptly, startling Allura.

"Lance you can't! You've barely recovered, you-"

He didn't let her finish her sentence before he left the room.

As he made his way to Blues hanger he felt the familiar crash of waves in his mind, which he assumed to be her attempting to comfort him or telling him to rest, he couldn’t figure out which it was, but decidedly ignored it. They had to find the others. They had to find  _ her _ .

He found Blue not in her usual position but rather laying down. "I guess you're not feeling 100% either, are you, girl?"

The lion echo the sounds of the sea in his mind and begrudgingly opened her mouth to let him in.

Allura's face popped up on the Blue Lion's screen as he settled into the pilot seat.

"Lance, if you'll just hold on a tick, we can all go together," Allura insisted.

"Pidge isn't some damsel-in-distress just waiting to be rescued, Allura. If you can't pick up on the Green Lion's energy signature then something's wrong. I have to go now, I can't just sit around and wait. Let me know when Hunk and Shiro wake up." He closed the connection and connected with Blue as they took off from the castle.

No one from the team had ever tried reaching out to one lion or one paladin before - at least that Lance knew - so he wasn't entirely sure if the direction he chose was accurate, but it felt right.

Two vargas later with absolutely no results had Lance growing antsy. What if he had gone the wrong way? All that time he just spent would be wasted. No. It wouldn’t be wasted, it had narrowed down where Pidge  _ wasn’t _ .

Allura had contacted him half a varga ago to say Shiro had gone out searching for Keith and Hunk was going to search the path behind the ship for both of the missing paladins.

He opened a direct comm to Pidge - or at least attempted to. If not for the dire situation, he would've found it humorous the comms worked like a voicemail when not online.

"Katie, it's Lance. If you're out there please answer."

He tried to keep his voice from cracking, but was only half successful. Her words rang in his head from when she told him just how empty space actually was.

He wasn't sure what was worse: crash landing on a hostile planet and fighting for her life, or set adrift in space until someone found her.

No, the latter was definitely worse. At least on a hostile planet she had a fighting chance.

His fear renewed his will to find her.

Lance focused on Pidge, similar to when they trained as a team with the mind meld machines. Blue crashed waves in his mind as she redirected slightly to the left and sped up. Not long after, the window beeped and locked onto a life signature.

He scrambled to open a comm, willing Blue to go faster.

"Pidge! Pidge are you okay? Its Lance, just hold on!"

It showed the communication was stable and connected, but he still wasn’t getting a response.

As she came into view, Lance bolted from the pilot seat and made his way down to Blue’s mouth, making sure his helmet was on. He felt Blue open her mouth, lining up so Lance could catch the other paladin easily.

Lance paled at how cold her body was to the touch. Their suits were supposed to retain body heat since heat in space was nonexistent unless you were relatively close to a star - which Lance knew they were not.

“Katie…” he breathed.

Panic started to set in as he made his way back to the cockpit and opened a channel to Allura.

“Allura, I found her,” he started. “I don’t know where the Green Lion is, she was alone-” he choked out the words as he set her gently on the ground. He pulled off her helmet and his finger flew to the base of her neck to check for a pulse, barely finding one.

“Blue get us back to the castle, now!” The growl in the back of his mind told him they were already on the way.

“Come on, wake up,” he whispered, cupping her cheek.

“Lance!” Allura yelled, and Lance had a feeling it wasn’t the first time she had said his name. He looked up, startled, and she continued. “I need you to stay calm.  _ Pidge _ needs you to stay calm. Is she breathing?”

He leaned down, hoping for at least a small breath on his cheek. Lance almost cried right then and there when he felt her breathing, shallow but holding on. “Barely, but yes.”

“Okay, Lance,” Shiro said, and Lance wondered when he had been patched in. “Keep an eye on her pulse and keep her breathing until you get back to the castle. Allura will be waiting with a healing pod, okay?” Lance nodded, not taking his eyes off of the Green Paladin. Shiro’s voice was calm and level, and lowered his freak out a few levels. “She’s going to be fine.”

All Lance could do was nod as he heard Shiro disconnect the channel. He had to believe Shiro’s words. He didn’t have an option.

“Allura?” he asked, not even sure if she was still connected.

“Yes, Lance?” Her voice was soft, almost as if she were afraid of him going off the deep end. He figured she had the right to be worried.

“You be there. Be there with the pod.”

“Of course,” she replied just as soft as before, but now reassuring.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go @Minty_Jade :) You asked and I answered!
> 
> I write too much so this is actually going to be three chapters, such a tragedy... *shrugs*

How long Lance had waited outside her healing pod, he wasn’t quite sure.

At some point Shiro had brought in Keith, who had fought him every step of the way, insisting he was fine. Shiro had shushed him with a kiss and Keith had caved. Lance watched them from the corner of his eye, trying his best not to feel hurt.

His gaze returned to the girl in front of him, knowing he would give anything to be in her place. But then - he both hoped and feared - she’d be worrying about him, too.

There was no reason for him to be here, camped out in front of her healing pod. Sure he could chalk it up to being her friend, but that wasn’t it. Hunk was her best friend as much as he was Lance’s but Lance didn’t see Hunk waiting for her to wake up, nor would he want Hunk waiting on him if he were in Katie’s position.

Hunk was probably off being useful, or at the very least distracting himself to pass the time quicker. Yet, here was Lance. Unable to tear himself from his spot on the floor.

Keith’s pod hissed open and Lance tried to quell the disappointment in his chest as he stood up to help Keith step down.

The red paladin blinked slowly before registering the extended arm. He hesitantly took, and Lance tried to give him a reassuring smile.

“Shiro said something about helping Allura track down Zarkon’s ship if it survived. Hunk will probably make you some food, if you’re hungry,” Lance offered. Keith looked stable enough, so Lance dropped his arm and headed back to the remaining healing pod.

“I might eat yours if it didn’t look like it’s been sitting there for three hours.”

Lance gave a lazy look to the food Hunk had brought by however long ago - probably was at least three hours ago like Keith thought. He wasn’t sure.

When Lance didn’t offer a response besides shrugging his shoulders, Keith sat down beside him and looked at Pidge.

“Have you told her?”

Lance looked at him, slightly confused. “What’s there to tell?”

Keith stared at him for a moment, almost deciding if he actually wanted to say what was on his mind.

“Lance, why are you here?” Keith asked blatantly.

The blue paladin scoffed and motioned around them. “Why are any of us here?” He countered. “You found the Blue Lion and it teleported us thousands of galaxies away to fight in some intergalactic war-”

He stopped upon seeing Keith’s hands up in surrender. “Not exactly what I meant.”

It took a few seconds and Keith motioning his head towards the girl in the pod for Lance to finally understand.

“Cause she’s my friend,” he offered, pulling his knees to his chest.

“And Hunk isn’t?” Keith countered. Lance didn’t respond, and after a minute Keith broke the silence. “She knows you treat her differently.”

Lance opened his mouth to argue but Keith didn’t let him.

“She sees the way you flirt with every girl but her-”

“Because she’s too good for that,” he interrupted. Heat swirled inside him at the thought he had made her feel less than what she was. What was she, though? Lance bit the inside of his lip, looking away.

“Allura’s not too good? Look if you think Pidge is ugly-”

Lance was on top of Keith in an instant, fists holding the front of Keith’s collar firmly. “She’s beautiful and more intelligent than you’ll ever be. I don’t flirt with her because she deserves so much more than shitty pick up lines!”

Keith just stared unamused up at him, point made.

“I didn’t take you for the violent type, Lance,” Shiro noted from the doorway, surprise lacing his words.

Lance immediately got off of Keith and sat back on the floor, slowly raising his eyes to see both Shiro and Hunk had entered the room. Keith sat up as Shiro made his way over, and offered a hand to help him stand up.

“I can’t believe you go him to admit it,” Hunk breathed. He was across the room, but it was so quiet that everyone could hear him.

“Apparently Keith’s always been good at pushing his buttons,” laughed Shiro. He turned to Lance and smiled warmly. “Lance, when she wakes up,” he paused to make sure the other was listening, “just tell her.”

A light blush tinted the Blue Paladin’s cheeks as the three left him alone with his thoughts.

He hadn’t meant to pin Keith down - nor had he meant to say those things out loud. He had never considered how Pidge might feel that he never flirted with her. They had been friends since the beginning when Lance thought she was a boy. Usually his first move is to hit on a girl and ultimately drive them away, no matter how hard Lance tried to woo them. With her he never had that chance.

He had gotten to know her first, gotten to see how her eyes lit up when she figured out a problem that had her stumped for days, how she smiled when she recalled memories of her family or Hunk made her fake peanut butter cookies with whatever ingredients he was able to scrounge up.

Looking at her now, it was hard to tell she had once been a simple girl on Earth with dreams to be like her father and older brother. Time and space had warped her into a badass that was getting tougher and more skilled everyday.

Lance wasn’t sure if the same applied to him, but he could hope.

Finding out she was a girl was surprising, but it hadn’t changed how Lance saw her - at least he didn’t think so. He wondered for a second if there would still be a blush across his sheeks right now if he thought Pidge was still a boy.

He decided not to bring his unclear sexuality into the equation, choosing to focus on something that wasn’t so fuzzy:

He liked Katie Holt as more than a friend.

There. He said it. In his mind, at least, but that would work for now. At least until she woke up.


End file.
